Friday, Jul 15, 2005
Friday, Jul 15, 2005 |
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Richard Luscombe
CAPE CANAVERAL (FLORIDA): America's plans to get back into space suffered a humiliating blow on Wednesday night when the launch of the shuttle Discovery was cancelled two hours before its scheduled lift-off. With most of the crew already strapped in to seats on the flight deck, NASA managers aborted the mid-afternoon launch, blaming defective sensors on an external fuel tank for the delay to the agency's first manned mission since the Columbia disaster in 2003. ``For some reason they did not behave today and so we're going to have to scrub this attempt,'' said launch director Mike Leinbach. He told his launch control team to ``appreciate all we've been through together, but this one is not going to result in a launch attempt today''. Disappointment The delay is a considerable disappointment for NASA, which is determined to restore a reputation tarnished by the Columbia accident that killed seven astronauts and which has spent $1.4 billion on safety improvements to its ageing shuttle fleet. It is also the latest in a series of setbacks for Mission STS-114, which was originally scheduled for launch in May but was delayed when a hairline crack was discovered on the main fuel tank. On Wednesday, NASA said the sensor appeared to be showing a low fuel level, although the tank was filled with more than 530,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen earlier in the day. Technicians had already overcome two other earlier hitches to get Discovery ready for launch. NASA managers were meeting to assess the extent of the problem and how much time would be needed to fix it, although any issue with the shuttle's fuel supply is considered serious and will require a thorough system inspection. No new target date was announced immediately. NASA has until July 31 to launch Discovery. After that it will have to delay until September 9, when the International Space Station again comes into the right position for a shuttle rendezvous after a daylight lift-off. All but two of Discovery's crew of seven were fully strapped in to their seats on the shuttle's flight deck when the decision to abort was made. They wore resigned smiles and shook hands with flight deck assistants as they left the spacecraft and headed back to their crew quarters. ``We are very disappointed but we'll fly again another day,'' said David Wolf, an astronaut speaking from the launch control room.
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